


Dealing

by coffeebased



Category: Young Wizards
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeebased/pseuds/coffeebased
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nita deals with things after her mother's passing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dealing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doranwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/gifts).



> A bit of time between "A Wizard's Dilemma", and "A Wizard's Alone". No spoilers for any book beyond "A Wizard's Dilemma".

(So, what’re you doing later?)

Nita stopped short in the middle of writing the last sentence of a particularly grueling essay. She sighed, and scratched her nose with the end of her pen. If it came down to just pretending she couldn’t hear him... no, she couldn’t.

She put down her pen, and leaned back into her chair, stretching out the kinks in her back before answering.

(Homework. And more homework. Why?)

It wasn’t lying, per se. There had been a distinct up swell in the amount of work they’d been getting at school; all the kids in her year had been moaning about it all month. Even Joanne had shared a commiserating eye roll with her when their literature teacher had begun demanding bi-weekly essays on top of the papers they’d been writing.

She rubbed her heels of palms into her eyes, and the charms on her bracelet dug into her cheek with the force of the movement. It wasn't that bad, not really. At least it was something to focus on, something that really didn't require thinking. It would almost be too easy to just let it all slide by in one seemingly endless rush of schooldays and half-meant chores. After all, life moved on without you if you couldn’t keep up.

Her dad tried to not ask much of her these days, but she found herself picking up the slack around the house. It wasn’t as though he was forgetful, or careless about chores, but years of habit had just made his brain hardwired to expect that another set of eyes and hands would always be there to see that the cupboards were empty, or that the living room needed vacuuming.

Or in Dairine’s case, an example was necessary. It was all Nita could do to drag herself out of bed every morning, and she did it the way she did most of everything nowadays, to prove a point to the universe that she could manage to move on.

So here she was, holed up in her room with about five million years’ worth of homework, and stuck, through her own need to prove to Dairine that there were other options, better options, than giving up, and shutting down.

Nita blinked her eyes rapidly; it still stung, really.

(I haven’t seen you in days. Thought you wouldn’t reply, actually.)

She could imagine his expression, the same one Nita’d seen ever since her mother’s funeral. No one could do Look like he could; the sheer concern that he managed to convey with a knotted brow just stuck with you. It was part and parcel of why she’d been kind of avoiding him. He’d dogged her steps as closely he could at school, appearing at her classroom door at the end of each period and at her locker each morning, like he couldn’t even let her out of his sight for half a second.

Nita knew that after Pralaya, maybe she deserved this close surveillance.

(Of course I would.)

(Right.) Kit said drily, (You haven’t been avoiding me at all.) There was a half a beat, and then he continued, (Look, I know it was too much, I was too much.)

Nita cut him off, (You don’t have to- I’ve been busy, okay?)

(Sure you‘ve been. When’s the last time you even opened your manual?)

She slammed her textbook shut, (I’m not saying that you haven’t been annoying, but this isn’t me just having a sulk, Kit.) Nita took a deep breath, calming her nerves. (This isn’t working. Moon?)

(I’ve got some other coordinates that I’m sending to your book right now.)

(I’ll see you in twenty. Need to tell dad.)

She waited to see if he’d reply, and when he didn’t, Nita pulled the invisible tab of her space open and pulled out her manual. It had been at least a week since she’d bothered to even open it; the binding was familiar and comforting to touch. Nita opened it to the ‘Messages’ page, and the coordinates were there, pulsing white against the glow of the other unread messages. Three of the older ones were just various counters that Nita’d marked to alert her when they’d run out, days ago; she’d have to restart some of the experiments the counters represented.

Nita touched the entry right beneath the coordinates Kit had sent her: a small rectangle appeared as a semi-transparent overlay on top of the page. It was dated just the day before.

 _Nita, just checking in. Tom and I have found something you might be interested in. The arsenic bacteria have been saying that -_

Nita guiltily tapped out of the window, bringing the coordinates to the forefront. It was someplace terran, and close by, relatively anyway. She pulled the ring charm off her bracelet; activating the spell and causing the teleportation spell to enlarge into the familiar, long stretch of Speech. She used two fingertips to drag the coordinates off the page, and fastened it into the proper end of the spell.

She grabbed both ends of the golden chain and pushed them towards each other until it decommissioned into the charm. It reattached easily enough to her bracelet.

Nita gave her unfinished essay one last look, then pushed away from her desk and headed downstairs.  
-

“That was definitely more than twenty minutes, Neets.”

Kit was sitting at the shoreline with his feet in the water, jeans rolled up to his knees. It was almost evening, and the sunset’s glow had all but faded from the horizon. In the distance, where the water was deeper, Nita could see familiar dorsal fins: Hotshot and his pod most likely. She waved, in case.

“The Hamptons? Is this supposed to be symbolic?” Nita plopped down on the sand beside him but unlike Kit, kept herself out of the water. The crumbly sand promptly got into the waistband of her jeans, and she concentrated on that, instead of the memory of her mother on this very same beach. “We brought my mom to the moon, too.” She raised a hand caked in sand, “It’s drier there at least.”

“True.” Kit gave her a sidelong look, “But you know why we’re here.”

Nita shrugged. “Why don’t you tell me, that way we don’t misunderstand each other?”

He looked nervous, that at least she could see in the fading light. “That night, when we told your parents about being wizards. Your mom asked you why we did it.”

“What’s in it for us… yeah, I remember.” Nita dug her fingers in the sand, “So this is a mom thing. Kit, I’m trying to deal with it best I can, and it’s not like I’ve been behaving-“

“No, it’s not a mom thing,” his voice was gentle, “Neets, this is a you thing. I’ve been worried about you. ”

She bristled, but he shook his head, “Let me get this out, okay?” Kit pulled his knees toward him, “When your mom asked us why we did it, we were just so happy to show it to her, you know? And I know that I’ll never really get what you’re going through-“

“I’m not asking you get it. She’s gone, and I’m just trying to be okay with it,” Nita buried her face in her arms, more frustrated than anything else, “Timeheart or not, it’s just-“ she stumbled around the words, “It’s just hard. We’ve lost people before, and, it’s just harder.” She really didn’t want to cry, so she took a deep, shuddering breath instead. “And I know what you’re tying to do Kit, and I really appreciate it, even if I am just failing at things right now.”

“Neets,” Kit put his arm around her shoulders, “you’re doing better than I think I ever would. I just want to make sure someone’s telling you that.”


End file.
